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SI 

POPULAR EDUCATION, DOCUMENT NO. 2. 



[Ifrom tlie Journal of Edixcatioii.] 



THE THEORY OF 



American Education 



CO 



.'■&Of 



BY WM. T. HARRIS, >.i!!3 

SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ST. LOmS: 



Chapter l. — Education in the Past. 

I'UEFATOllV. 

]^'p) N this age of revolution and 
self-styled reform, we are 
called upon to listen to pro- 
'^3 tests against every form of 

e5^ existing reality. It is well 
that the rationale of all we 
have and are should pass under the 
scrutinizing j-eview of the censor. 
But it is better to be able to see posi- 
tive features than merely to be able 
to utter protests. Meanwhile the 
merely negative is better than the 
death of stagnation. 

Our systems of education are no 
better than they should be, — far from 
it. But it does not follow that any 
change would be for the better. 
Only wlien we can see the full 
grounds for tlie reality of a system, 
can we then set about improving it 
wisely. 

Text-book education has been the 
subject of much abuse for thiee- 
fourths of a centurv among educa- 



tional men in Europe and this 
countr}-. The great writers of the 
English language in the seventeenth 
century have anticipated most of the 
objections now urged. One will 
find admirable statemoits of them in 
Locke and Milton, and, what is 
more, he will find them so temperate 
as to escape the extremes into which 
our later day protests have developed. 
It is with a view of throwing some 
light on this important question that 
I commence its study afar oft' at the 
beginnings of our system of school 
instruction, and trace its affiliation 
with the political history of modern 
times. 

HISTORICAL. 

Four hundred years ago this ver\- 
year, VVm. Caxton, the first English 
printer, was engaged on the first of 
his works — the history of Raoul le 
Fevre — " Rccncil des histoires de 
Troycy The same year printing 
was intro(kiccd into Ivlilan :md Ven- 
ice. It seems that the invention of 
the art of printing dates back of this 



■Read at tlic- XatimuU Teach. rs' Associati;)n. held at Cleveland, An;,'', ig. iSyo. 



( 2 ) 



some thirty years, and that th6 firm 
of Johann Faust and Gutenberg 
commenced the business of printing 
books in the city of Mentz in the 
year 1450. The epoch is a notable 
one in history. 

Three years after the partnership 
of Faust-Gutenberg, Constantinople 
fell into the hands of the Turks, and 
the Eastern Empire closed its career. 
The "Wars of the Roses" depopu- 
lated England of her nobility to such 
an extent that the royal power rose 
nearly to absolutism in the dynasty 
of kings that followed, and in the 
next reaction, the power of the Com- 
mons came uppermost. In Spain, 
Ferdinand and Isabella united their 
crowns, and drove out the last vestige 
of Moorish power from Europe the 
same vear that " Genoese Columbus 
launched his adventurous fleet into 
the Western ocean." The Medici 
family were at the height of their 
power in Florence, and Lorenzo the 
Magnificent ascended the throne the 
same year that Caxton completed the 
history we have named. Under his 
reign were born the great Michael 
Angelo and the great Raphael. Mar- 
cilius Ficinus, the reviver of the 
profound study of Plato and the Pla- 
tonists of Alexandria, was his scliool- 
master. 

What with the revival of learning 
and the discovery of new worlds, the 
mastery over the Moslem, the inven- 
tion of printing, and the bloom of 
romantic art, the *•' Time River," as 
Goethe calls it, was indeed swollen 
to overflowing, and in the age fol- 
lowing thei'e arose in Europe the 
modern States system, and the "Bal- 
ance of Power" developed througli 



the wars of Charles the Fifth with 
Francis the First and Henry the 
Eighth. At this epoch appeared the 
Reformation, and the new impulse 
toward independence of authority. 
Luther, Erasmus and Melancthon 
appear at the same time as Coperni- 
cus, with the " true system of the 
Universe," and Roger Ascham, the 
schoolmaster, teaching Greek to 
Qiieen Elizabsth. 

With the spread of the art of 
printing came the cheapening of 
books and the stimulus to popular 
education. According to Diesterweg, 
the eminent German educator, "the 
present system of common or public 
schools — that is, schools wdiich are 
open to all children under certain 
regulations — dates from the discovery 
of printing, in 1436, w^ien books 
began to be furnished so cheaply that 
the poor could buy them." He re- 
marks : " Especially after Martin 
Luthei- had translated the Bible into 
German, and the desire to possess 
and understand that invaluable book 
became universal, did there also be- 
come universal the desire to know 
how to read. Men sought to learn, 
not only for the sake of reading the 
Scriptures, but also to be able to 
read and sing the psalms and to learn 
the catechism. For this purpose 
schools for children were established 
which were essentially reading- 
schools. Reading was the first and 
priiicipal study ; next came singing, 
and then memorizing texts, songs, 
and the catechism. At first the min- 
isters taught ; but afterwards the duty 
was turned over to the inferior church 
officers, the choristers and sextons. 
Their duties :.s choristers and sextons 



(3) 



i 



were paramount, and as schoolmas- 
ters onl}' secondary. The children 
paid a small monthly fee, no more 
being thought necessary, since the 
schoolmaster derived a salary from 
^the church." 

X The mode of instruction at this 
,^ early period of public school history 
is characterized by Diesterweg in the 
following words : " Each child read 
by himself; the simultaneous method 
(that of classes) was not yet known. 
One after another stepped up to the 
table where the master sat. He 
pointed out one letter at a time, 
and named it ; the child named it 
after him ; he drilled him in recog- 
nizing and remembering each. Then 
they took letter by letter of the words, 
and by getting acquainted with them 
in this way the child gradually learn- 
ed to read. This was a difficult 
method for him. Years usually passed 
before any facility had been acquired ; 
many did not learn in four years. It 
was imitative and purely mechanical 
labor on both sides. To understand 
what was read was seldom thought 
of. The syllables were pronounced 
vv'ith equal force, and reading was a 
monotonous atlair. The children 
drawled out texts of scripture, psalms 
and the catechism from beginning 
to end. As for the actual meaning 
of the words they uttered, they knew 
almost nothing of it." This, with 
"stern severity and cruel punish- 
ments," completes his picture of that 
stage of the school system.* 

But the movement thus begun was 
no superficial one ; it was wide and 



* This, and the passages from Rousseau, are 
quoted from translations given m BamanPs your- 
nal. 



deep as all European civilization, 
and it signified nothing less than the 
complete and full emancipation of 
each and every individual from all 
species of external authority. All 
institutions of society were to be born 
again, and from their Palingenesia 
were to spring the humanitarian out- 
growths of the present and the future. 
National literatures arose ; three gen- 
erations of men contested the new 
ideas, first with words, then with 
bitter persecutions, and then came 
the Thirty Years' War, with its final 
treaty, the peace of Westphalia, 
wherein the States system, which 
began to develop in the time of 
Charles Fifth, now got fully recog- 
nized, and with it free individuality 
took a new status. 

Out of one solution forth steps a 
new problem, and that with frightful 
portent. By the light of the new 
principle of individuality, which took 
the form of the "right of private 
judgment," the old basis of society in 
Europe looked hideously empty, and 
a sham throughout. To a generation 
of Newtons, Lockes, and Leibnitz's, 
succeed a generation of Bolingbrokes, 
Swifts, Rousseaus, Montesquieus, and 
these again are followed by such as 
Hume, Voltaire, Diderot, Lessing, 
and Goethe. The French Revolution 
is inevitable, and an immense explo- 
sion rends the face of European civ- 
ilization, threatening to merge in one 
red ruin all the landmarks built up 
for a thousand years. But " History 
is only a conflict of ideas, and the 
victory of the deeper one." Out of 
the obscurity, when the smoke cleared 
away, appeared again the same hu- 
manity, only with a stronger tendency 



(^ ) 



than ever to realize the possibilities 
of the individual. In place of the 
cramping formulism which had first 
prevailed in the school-room, and 
w^hich for two centuries had improved 
very little, on account of the w^ars 
which were constantly occurring, now 
a new spirit came in. It was the spirit 
we call Pestalozzian, and traces di- 
rectly to Rousseau. The positive idea 
of this reform has been stated thus : 
"The child should be educated^ — not 
for a trade or profession, but for the 
comvion and absolute state of man I 
Should not, therefore, subject himself 
to any thraldom of habit, but be in- 
dependent of everything about him, 
and master of himself." II?iman 
nature is distinctly recognized as an 
ideal of expanded culture. " Indi- 
viduality must be held sacred, and 
carefully studied and encouraged." 
All mechanical methods are eschew- 
ed, — the teacher endeavors to excite 
the pupil to self-activity, and thereby 
render him independent of all assist- 
ance. 

These great ideas mark the epoch 
of a clear consciousness of the true 
province of pedagogy. They are 
fundamental, and universally recog- 
nized by the great educators of Eu- 
rope and America. 

But, like all great formative ideas, 
the first realizations of the same are 
prone to be self-contradictory. It is 
the pi'ovince of all great national 
ideas to find, after manifold experi- 
ments, the fit instruments for their 
realization. When this is accom- 
plished they become victorious. At 
first they are liable to select the old 
instrumentalities which have been 
created by the national ideas already 



worn out. Then the new idea suf- 
fers defeat, and must try new means, 
until at last it hits upon the true 
armor — the steel of its own forging, 
and with this it is invincible — for the 
time. 

Our late civil war furnishes too 
pertinent an example to be passed b}' 
in silence. There was a ne^v out- 
growth of the humanitarian idea, 
which had found the instrumentality 
of its realization in productive Indtts- 
try. Its strength lay in mechanic 
invention, thoroughly subordinated to 
that system of industry. In the war 
one party said : " I will have none of 
it, but I will hold by that stage of 
society whose instrument is serfdom." 
The result of the first six months' 
struggle was a self-contradiction on 
the part of the South, for, in order to 
carry on the contest equally, it was- 
obliged to establish mechanic indus- 
tries in every village ; without these 
it could not be independent of for- 
eigners. Thus it was conquered in 
its idea before it yielded to the force 
of arms. Both sides of the nation 
were really in the same stage of hu- 
manitarianism, but one had preceded 
the other in discovering the true and 
proper instrument for its lealization. 
Now both see it in the same light.. 
It is because of this inevitable mis- 
take of instrumentalities that we are 
forced in this essay to speak so much 
of the system of " Text-Book Edu- 
cation." It was the ■•most natural 
thing imaginable that happened in 
the case of the new and better spirit 
which came to be recognized in Pes- 
talozzianism. 

Rousseau's influence. 

The two wings of Rousseau's 



( 5 ) 



school — if I may so express it — are 
represented in Basedow and Pesta- 
lozzi. The former is the extreme 
disciple of his master, and tends 
always to the grossest naturalism, 
while Pestalozzi is moderated ever 
iDy his deep instincts and religious 
culture. But both antagonize them- 
selves against the very appliances 
which Reason has elaborated for her 
realization. The printed book is 
thrown aside with contempt, and the 
living voice of the teacher substituted 
therefor to an extent far from justifi- 
able. 

It is the true rationale of text-book 
education to which I would call at- 
tention here ; and this I would urge 
with more zeal for the reason that 
the question is, to a great extent, 
before the mind of American educa- 
tors to-day, and is the source of man- 
ifold experiments, which may prove 
expensive in the end. 

This topic forms a leading one in 
a discussion of the distinctive features 
of school education in America, as 
contrasted with the methods in vogue 
in Europe. 

From the date of the publication 
of "Lienhard and Gertrud," by Pesta- 
lozzi, the world has borne in mind 
the invectives against books and the 
art of printing. All the evils exist- 
ing in society have been referred to 
the deficient state of education, and 
this again to the deficient modes of 
teaching which have arisen from the 
art of printing. But the I'oot of all 
this objection to printing lies deeper ; 
it is, as we have intimated, the eftect 
of the writings of Rousseau, who 
elevates a state of nature over a state 
of culture. In 1749, at the age of thirty- 



seven, Rousseau made his first success- 
ful literary adventure, by writing an 
answer to a prize question proposed 
by the Academy of Dijon : "Whether 
the progress of the Arts and Sciences 
has tended to the purification of man- 
ners and morals." "At the sugges- 
tion of Diderot, who i-eminded him 
of the greater notoriety which he 
could gain on the wrong side, he 
took the negative, and found his line 
of argument exactly- adapted to his 
modes of thought and feeling." 
He wrote a violent, brilliant and elo- 
quent denunciation of civilized life, 
and at once found himself famous as 
a "censor of civilization." If any 
one has doubts as to the origin of 
most that is called Pestalozzianism, 
let him hear Rousseau talk in his 
" Emile." " The pedagogues," says 
he, " teach children words, nothing 
but words, and no I'eal knowledge." 
" Children should not learn by rote, 
not even La Fontaine's Fables." 

" Reading is the great misery of 
children. Emile must, in his twelfth 
year, scarcel}' know what a book is." 

" What the human mind receives 
is conveyed through the senses ; the 
senses are the basis of the intellec- 
tual. Our feet, our hands, our eyes, 
first teach us philosophy." 

" Xo writings are proper for a boy ; 
no eloquence or poetry ; he has no 
business with feeling or taste." 

" Geographical instruction should 
begin with the house and place of 
abode. The pupil should draw maps 
of the neighborhood, to learn how 
they are made, and what they show." 

" Robinson Crusoe might consti- 
tute for a long time the entire library 
of a child." 



( 6) 



" The boy should do nothing at the 
word ; nothing is good to him except 
what he himself recognizes as good. 
By your wisdom you rob him of his 
mother wit ; he becomes accustom- 
ed always to be led, and to be only a 
machine in the hands of others. To 
require obedience of the child means 
to require that when grown up he 
shall be credidous, — shall be made a 
fool of." 

" Do the opposite of what is usual, 
and you will almost always do right." 

In the 2Drinci23les embodied in these 
quotations, one recognizes the confu- 
sion which reigned in Rousseau's mind 
as to the difference between nature in 
general, and human nature. 

NATURE vs. HUMAN NATURE, OR THE 
SPIRITUAL ; HOW MAN LIFTS HIM- 
SELF BY AID OF INSTITUTIONS. 

Nature, as existing in time and 
space, is the polar antithesis to the na- 
ture of man as s^tyirit. Nay, man him- 
self finds himself, as merel}' natural, 
hisworst-foe. By nature he is totally 
depraved ; that is, he is a mere animal, 
and governed by animal impulses and 
desires, without ever rising to the ideas 
of reason. The greedy swine fight 
over the jDossession of the acorn that 
drops in their midst. It is a scene of 
pure violence. Everywhere the being 
of mere nature is impelled from with- 
out and has no freedom. For free- 
dom begins with making one's na- 
ture, and not with mere unconscious 
habit. Out of the savage state man 
ascends by making himself new na- 
tures, one above the other ; he real- 
izes his ideas in institutions, and finds 
in these ideal worlds his real home 
and his true natiu'e. 

The state of nature is the savasre 



state. The state of h7iman nature 
only exists as a pi-oduct of culture. 
The world of nature in time and space 
exists for man or human nature, on 
condition that he have intelligence 
and skill to use it. The natural man 
who has not ascended above nature 
and become its master, is more unfor- 
tunate and unhappy than the brute. 
To achieve his destiny, to become 
aught that is distinctivelv human, he 
must be able to combine with his fel- 
\a\\ men and sum up the results of the 
race in each individual. First there 
is practical combination — civil society 
organizing in such a manner that each 
man reaps the united effort of the en- 
tire community : the laborer who earns 
his dollar for the day's work being 
able to ^purchase therewith one dol- 
lar's worth of an}' or all the productions 
that himian labor has wrought out. 
This kind of combination, whereby 
man lifts himself above himself as an 
individual (and to that extent trans- 
cends his mere finiteness), permits 
you and me to pursue quietly our vo- 
cations, and yet enjo}' the fruition of 
the labor of the world. For ftach citi- 
zen, no matter how humble his birth 
or station, is made, by commerce, a 
centre from which ray out lines of 
communication and exchange to all 
industrial regions in the world. Each 
for all, and all for eAch ! The coal 
miner digging beneath the earth, and 
shut out from the light of day, does a 
work for all. Every stroke of his 
pickaxe aflects to a certain extent the 
price of coal in all the markets of the 
world, and the price of coal affects 
the prices of all other commodities. 
The relation is reciprocal ; and every 
vessel that crosses the ocean, every 



(7) 



laborer on the distant plantation in 
the Indies or Brazil, or even by the 
far ort Nile or Ganges, every manu- 
facturer in Birmingham or Manches- 
ter, aftects in turn the well-being of the 
coal miner in Illinois or Pennsylvania. 
He is comforted and cheered by the 
tea and coffee, nourished and sus- 
tained hv the fruits, grains ajid spices, 
the cotton, and silk, and linen that 
have traveled to him around the earth. 
Nay, the very drugs th;it make life 
possible in our malarious climes, are 
grown from six to twehe thousand 
miles hence. Combination secures 
not onh' tlie participation in all pro- 
ducts on the part of each, it secures 
that division of labor which results 
in the highest skill of elabonition. 

THE KKALM OK MIND, OR HOW MAX 
BY COMBIXATIOX BECOMES OMXI- 
SCIENT. 

But -practical combination is not 
all nor indeed the chief item of im- 
portance in the elevation of man. 

There is theoretical combination — 
the scholar by diligent study and much 
deep thinking being able to master 
for himself, one by one, the great 
thoughts that have ruled the world- 
history. The scientific solutions antl 
generalizations relating to the great 
problem of human life — these are pre- 
served in books, and each man. wo- 
man and child may partake, for in 
this realm too, all is for each, and 
each for all. The great Sphinx of 
nature has sat before man and asked 
him questions, looking up at him with 
quiet, stony looks, until despair has 
forced from him the solution, or else 
driven him to death. For every so- 
lution in the shape of scientific dis- 
cover}', or ethical maxim, has been 



wrought out only through grimmest 
toil and sweat. 

liut the participation of each in the 
labors of all is far more perfect in the 
theoretical sphere than in the material 
or practical sphere. For what one 
eats up or wears out, perishes in the 
using ; but thought, ideas, principles, 
the products of spirit, increase in 
the using. When you have a new 
thought, and your neighbor is made 
the vviser for your imparting it to 
him, the new truth has two sources 
of emanation in place of one as be- 
fore. Instead of l)eing the poorer for 
having parted with the exclusive pos- 
session of your truth, }'ou really are 
richer ; for by explaining \o\\x doc- 
trine to others you learn to under- 
stand it better yourself. This second 
mode of combination is therefore bet- 
ter than the first. 

These two forms of combination — 
the practical and the theoretical — are 
the modes in which man the animal 
becomes man the spirit, and each in- 
dividual becomes a conscious partici- 
jDant of the life of the entire race. 

EDUCATION ITS FUXCTION. 

It is not necessary for each mem- 
ber of the human family to repeat in 
detail tlie experiments of all his pre- 
decessors, for their results descend to 
him by the system of combination in 
which he li\'es, and by education he 
acquires them. With these he may 
stand on the top of the ladder of hu- 
man cultiu'e, and build a new round 
to it so that his children after him 
may climb higher and do the like. 

The mere animal, lacking the pow- 
er of generalization, cannot amass ex- 
perience, but strictly confined to the 



( 8 ) 



dreamy life of the senses, and never 
rising to the region of abstract ideas, 
each individual animal matures and 
dies. Only the species lives on ; there 
is no immortality for the individual 
animal. It requires a being who can 
combine in himself the product of his 
entire species b}^ his individual ac- 
tivit}' — just as man can — to fulfill the 
conditions of immortality. 

Education, as embracing this form 
of active combination ^vith the race, 
characterizes human nature and dis- 
tinguishes it from animal nature. By 
it man is a progressive being, and 
his progress consists in subordinating 
the material world to his use, and 
freeing himself from the hard limits 
that hem in all natural beings. 

The nations and peoples of the 
world rank high or low in the scale 
according to the degree in which thc\- 
have realized this ideal of humanit)-. 
The rude tribes of central Africa and 
the Polynesian Islands stand at the 
foot of the ladder. The Oriental peo- 
ples have achieved a higher degree, 
though still ver}' defective. Where the 
individual is unsafe from the freaks 
and caprices of the ruler or su^^erior 
in rank, nothing can compensate for 
the uncertainty of his life and posses- 
sions. Arbitrariness in the governinp- 
principle is an essential ingredient 
thereof, and is only compatible with 
slavery in the people below it. 

Thus it happens that individual 
good behavior on the part of the 
ruler is made so important a matter in 
Oriental books. Read Saadi, or Fir- 
dusi, Confucius, orMencius, the code 
of Manu, or the Hitopadessa, and 
you find everywhere the beha\ior to- 
ward others, the conduct of life, as 



individual members of society, the 
theme. The most excellent maxims, 
like the golden rule of Confucius, are 
the staple of Oriental books, and 
why? Because the behavior of the 
individual is the essential thing. Hu- 
manity had not yet built up a wall 
around the individual such as to pro- 
tect him from his own caprice and ai"- 
bitrariness. With the ancient Greeks 
and Romans great progress was 
made over the highest Asiatic people. 
But it is in modern times that we have 
achieved the miracle in this respect. 
For what do our modern Christian 
States signify, except the realization 
of constituted forms under which each 
shall rcajD onh' the positive results of 
all, and that each one who does evil 
(is wicked and arbitrary) shall not 
injure the rest, but shall himself suffer 
for his own sins. It is the great heritage 
of the man born now that he can 
be protected b}' the forms of society 
and state in the enjoyment of his own 
labor. If he do good, positive deeds 
in the community, he shall get back 
the same from the rest ; but if he 
works against the good of the com- 
munity, he finds liimself at once cut 
ort' from receiving good from it. 

ROUSSEAU, AGAIN. 

These aspects of the State and of 
institutions generally, were not seen 
by Rousseau, nor by the chief think- 
ers of his time. 

When Rousseau sent a copy of his 
essay on '• The Origin of Inequality 
among Men," to Voltaire, the latter 
exposed its fallacy in the following 
sarcastic st\le : "I have received 
3'our new book against the human 
race, and thank you for it. No one 
could paint in stronger colors the 



( 9 ) 



horrors of human society from which 
our ignorance and weakness promise 
themselves so many delights. Never 
has any one employed so much 
genius to make us into beasts ; when 
one reads your book, he is seized at 
once with a desire to go down on all 
fours." 

PESTALOZZI. 

But Voltaire himself was too ex- 
clusively absorbed in pulling down 
institutions, to exercise any restrain- 
ing influence. The reactionary cur- 
rent against formulism had set in 
deep and strong. These ideas be- 
came the accepted doctrine in that 
age of unbelief and intellectual clear- 
ing up. In 179S, Pestalozzi unfolded 
Rousseau's doctrine in his book en- 
titled, " Researches into the Course 
of Nature in the Development of the 
Human Race." The first state of 
childhood being (according to him) 
the state of innocence and perfection, 
he represents the social state as the 
product of artificial conventionality. 
For external, interested motives men 
unite to form a state, etc. '• They 
agree to give a part of their unre- 
stricted freedom for the sake of secur- 
ing certain benefits otherwise not at- 
tainable." 

Yet we hear it frequently said that 
Pestalozzi labors to produce on the 
part of the child " spontaneous ac- 
tivity." But the freedom to do what 
my arbitrary will dictates, is not 
freedom, tor caprice destroys the 
work of one moment by that of the 
next. It is only self-consistent ac- 
tivity that can be free. All other 
is a perpetual self contradiction and 
perpetually builds up barriers to its 
own progress. But this self-con- 



sistent activity is not possible for the 
infant nor the savage. It has taken 
ages to achieve its forms. They are 
the Laws of the State, the Maxims 
of Jklorality, the Conventionalities of 
life, its habits and usages. Nay, 
more, they are the state-form it- 
self, the Religion, the entire complex 
of civilization. In these forms alone 
man can live so as to reap the fruition 
of his own deed. In any other form 
he will sow, and some one else will 
reap. What is done through caprice 
will be controlled by accident. 

The forms of combination by which 
each individual man is enabled to 
reap the result of the united effort of 
the entire community are the out- 
growth of man's rational will as de- 
veloped not in any particular man 
but in society as a wlicjle, the product 
of centuries of experience. The 
downfall of States, the most terrible 
ages, full of suffering and horror, these 
arc all "laid up layer above layer in 
the strata of human civilization," as 
well as the ages of peace and pros- 
perity which mankind have enjoyed. 
This great complex of arts and 
usages, of ideas and institutions, of 
prescriptions and privileges, which 
we call civilization, is the great Rev- 
elation of Human Nature : its own 
nature wrought out of the raw mate- 
rial — not in peaceful quiet or passive 
contemplation, but with agony and 
sweat of blood. 

The idle dream ot Rousseau and 
Pestalozzi, of Basedow and Chateau- 
briand — before this great social real- 
ity which surrounds us — fades into 
thin air. Its boasted ideal of human 
nature shrinks into atomic insignifi- 
cance before the actual fact itself! 



( 10) 



The state of nature and the state 
of culture are antitheses, and all true 
systems of education must mediate 
between. The problem is always : 
how to take the individual as mere 
animal and elevate him to free man- 
hood. When one starts out — as those 
theorists did — with the idea that man 
as individual is the ultimate norm 
and standard of all right and truth, 
he reads the page of civilization bot- 
tom side up and must needs howl the 
dismal chant of revolution in the 
ears of his fellow-men, or else retire 
within himself to live in his dreamy 
an idyllic life like that painted bj 
Chateaubriand in his Atala. 

Not the individual as such, with 
his fmitudes and frailties, with his 
selfishness and exclusiveness, his ani- 
mal instincts and desires — not the 
mere animal, is the end and aim of 
human existence, but rather the in- 
dividual who sacrifices himself as 
animal in order to realize in himself 
the life of spirit. In order to be an 
end to himself^ the individual must 
subordinate himself as a particular 
person, and make himself a servant 
of universal ideas such as he finds 
already formulated in society and the 
state, in Art, Religion, and Science. 
Not to be 

" Like dumb driven cattle," 
an unconscious laborer in the world, 
but to be a self conscious, intelligent 
actor, is man's birthright and destiny. 
And when the individual, however 
humble his calling, has arrived at a 
comprehension of the necessity that 
binds the organic system of civiliza- 
tion, and sees that it is only the action 
of a giant will-power enlightened 
by the accumulated intelligence of 



all individuals — then he not only ac- 
cepts his lot cheerfully, but rejoic- 
ingly, and sees himself, not as a slave 
in the mill of industry, but as a lord- 
proprietor for whom all mankind are 
fashioning the world into shapes of 
use and beauty. It is the vision of 
the whole that emancipates the indi- 
vidual. Goethe has expressed this 
exactly : "■ To the narrow mind, 
whatever he attempts is still a trade, 
[whether it be shoemaking or preach- 
ing the gospel, school teaching or 
poetizing] ; for the higher, an art ; 
and the highest, in doing one thing 
does all ; or, to speak with less para- 
dox, in the one thing which he does 
rightly, he sees the likeness of all 
that is done rightly." 

The individual must lose himself in 
order that he may find himself. He 
must purify himself in the baptism of 
institutions and wash off all traces 
of selfish egotism. And the result 
of such mediation all comes back to 
the individual and finds him no longer 
a mere animal, but a transfigured 
spirit ; not an egotist, but one whose 
personality is friendly to, and partici- 
pant in, the labors of all mankind. 



Chap. II. — The Present and Fu- 
ture of Education. 

The plausibility of all abstract sys- 
tems, like those we have been discus- 
sing, lies in the fact, that education 
must start with the natural, the igno- 
rant, the raw material. But its busi- 
ness is to elevate the individual out of 
this state of nature as quickly and 
effectually as possible. From ani- 
mal instincts and sensibilities, en- 
thralled by his physical necessities, 



( 11 ) 



he must be raised to the status of a 
reasonable being, who looks before 
and after, and subordinates all nature 
to the service of spirit. 

Education must elaborate its appli- 
ances so as to take firm hold of the 
pupil. Object lessons to strengthen 
the attention of the new beginner, 
conversations and stories, pictures and 
games — all these have their j^hice in 
any complete system of pedagogy. 
The mistake lies in their too great 
expansion, a danger very imminent 
in our own rapid intellectual growth. 
The nervous American child com- 
mences this kind of education so early 
that he is beyond the period of the 
exclusive appliances of such things 
before his sixth year, and when he 
enters the school room, is ready for 
the serious labor of mastering a text 
book. The records of our schools 
show that the majority of children 
brought up in families where reading 
is much carried on, can scarcely wait 
for the school age, but take the mat- 
ter into their own hands, and learn to 
read by themselves and what assist- 
ance they extort from the elder mem- 
bers of the family. 

Milk for babes is a useful and ne- 
cessary article of diet, but when the 
teeth grow, solid food is essential for 
healthy development. 

ORAL vs. TEXT BOOK INSTRUCTION. 

A system of education that professes 
to begin with oral instruction, and to 
continue it as the best system, ignores 
this vital point. 

It is a mistake to say that the pres- 
ent great educational systems of Eu- 
rope follow this plan. Its defects are 
nowhere so clearly seen as by educa- 
tors in Prussia, where such men as 



Diesterweg and Karl Von Raumer 
have placed all its phases in the clear- 
est light. 

In no country in the world is the 
printed book more highly valued than 
in Prussia. Germany originated the 
art of printing, and it is she that makes 
the greatest books in science and art, 
and condenses all the erudition of the 
world upon any single point. Erudi- 
tion cannot be gained by oril instruc- 
tion. All the information that could 
be given orally by the best of teach- 
ers, in a course of ten years, would 
not suffice to exhaust a single topic, 
and it would be a very poor substitute 
for the power a pupil would obtain by 
mastering one single text book for 
himself. 

But it will be readily granted that 
text book education begins earlier 
and forms a more important feature 
in this country than elsewhere. 

The justification for this, I find in 
the development of our national idea. 
It is founded on no new principle, 
but fundamentally it is the same as 
that agreed upon all the world over. 
Education should excite in the most 
ready way the powers of the pupil to 
self activity. Not what the teacher 
does for him, but what he is made to 
do for himself, is of value. Although 
this lies at the bottom of other na- 
tional ideas, it is not so explicitly re- 
cognized as in our own. It is in an 
embryonic state in those ; in ours it has 
unfolded and realized itself so that we 
are everywhere and always impelled 
by it to throw responsibility on the in- 
dividual. Hence, our theory is : the 
sooner we can make the youth able 
to pursue his course of culture for 
himself, the sooner may we graduate 



( 12 ) 



him from the school. To give him 
the tools of thought is our province. 
When we have initiated him into the 
technique of learning, he may be 
trusted to pursue his course for him- 
self 

Herein is the cause why university 
education is not so prominent here as 
in Europe. It is a frequent remark, 
that w^e are behind Europe in this re- 
spect. It is not denied that we have 
scholars who deserve respect, but we 
are told that they do not resort to uni- 
versities. Nor should they. It is not 
what we attempt to do here. We do 
not isolate our cultured class from the 
rest. It is our idea to have culture 
open to every one in all occupations 
of life. Elihu Burritt may learn 
fifty languages at the anvil. Benja- 
min Franklin may study Locke, make 
experiments in electricity, master the 
art of diplomacy. These are self- 
taught men, and the self-taught man 
is our type ; — not the man who wastes 
his life experimenting to learn what 
is already known and published, but 
the man who reads and informs him- 
self on all themes, and dii^ests his 
knowledge into practice as he goes 
along. A culture for its own sake is 
a noble aspiration, and it is well to 
have it advocated at all times. But 
a culture belonging to a class that 
rests like an upper layer upon the 
mass below, who in turn have to dig 
and spin for them, is not the Ameri- 
can ideal — Not at all, even if we do 
not produce men who devote their 
whole lives to the dative case, or to 
the Greek particles. And yet it is 
the faith of Americans that they will 
be able to accomplish all that any 
other civilization can do, besides add- 



ing thereto a culture in free individ- 
uality to an extent hitherto unattained. 
A civilization wherein all can partake 
in the subjugation of the elements, 
and possess a competence at such easy 
terms as to leave the greater part of 
life for higher culture, is the goal 
to which every American confidently 
looks. 

The common man shall be rich in 
conquests over the material world of 
Time and Space, and not only this 
but over the world of mind, the heri- 
tage of culture, the realized intelli- 
gence of all mankind. 

In modern times the controlling 
spirit is one of independence of all 
authority. So it happens in our sys- 
tems of Public Education that the 
personality of the teacher is not 
brought so much in contact with the 
pupil as formerly. When the patri- 
archal system prevailed in educa- 
tion, the ipse dixit of the pedagogue 
was all-sufficing. The pupil, in 
fact, depended almost solely upon the 
oral instruction of the teacher. Now 
the tendency is to make the individual 
independent of the personal teacher 
and of the university, by means of 
the printed page and its diffiision in 
the shape of books and periodicals. 
Once it was necessary to resort to the 
universit}^ to hear the master speak 
on his theme, for his knowledge 
could not be found in books. Indeed, 
books were not printed, but written 
by scribes, and for this reason were 
so costly that the individual could 
not afford to own them. The uni- 
versity is a place where all collect for 
one purpose — it has been, in its 
earlier days, a kind of grand market 
fair for the traffic in letters. The 



( 13 ) 



manuscripts, scarce and valuable, 
could be collected at a seat of learn- 
ing and all who wished to consult 
them had to take up their residence 
there. But when the ages of print- 
ing came, then books began to mul- 
tiply so rapidly that private individ- 
uals of moderate means, could pos- 
sess the most valuable treasures of 
erudition and science. What the 
hand-press of Faust-Gutenberg was 
to the toiling scribe, the modern 
power-press is to the former. The 
cheapening of books goes on ; the 
day is coming — nay it is here alread\', 
when whatever information one 
wishes to circulate, is committed^ at 
once to paper. 

Oral instruction, as an exclusive 
system, loses ground from day to day. 
The shadow of it is still preserved in 
Europe, and the imported shadow 
of it has been set up in this coun- 
try. But the spirit of the time is 
too powerful for it ; it immediatel}' 
draws everything into its own form. 
The Pestalozzian system is now pro- 
mulgated chielly through books writ- 
ten in the style of the oral instruc- 
tion. In these books their authors 
attempt to preserve their best (most 
brilliant) moments and free the sys- 
tem from the defects that accompany 
all systems which are mercl}' extempo- 
raneous. The individual, in order to 
make a powerful etibrt, must rein- 
force the moment by the hours — he 
must, by previous and severe prepa- 
ration, assure himself of a strong and 
steady flow during the period in 
which he stands before his school as 
teacher. Thus it was that even Pes- 
talozzi was compelled to reduce his 
system to a book containing tabulated 



forms and long lists of mere names — 
the driest and most soulless species 
of book ever written. I say species 
of book because that individual book 
has been imitated, and now we have 
many such in this country — books 
which, by their minute exhaustiveness 
in details, cramp the teacher and drive 
out every trace of spontaneity from 
him. And yet this prescription of 
details — it is found ad nauseajn in 
the superintendents' school-reports 
from Maine to California — this pre- 
scription of details is found abso- 
lutely necessary in order to correct 
the defects of oral instruction, for 
arbitrariness and caprice pour in like 
a deluge and wash away all land- 
marks. "Unequal is man, unequal 
are his hours." To-day the teacher 
had ample time for preparation, and 
is feeling well physically ; he comes 
before his class and electrifies every 
one of them ; to-morrow the opposite 
occurs : his inspiration all gone, 
some untoward accident deprived 
him of the necessary preparation, 
and the exercise benumbs ever}- pu- 
pil in his class. Since the pupil is to 
depend upon the teacher for every- 
thing — his thirst for knowledge hav- 
ing to be aroused and then sated too 
by him — it follows that the teacher 
is placed in the position of the 
most ancient of patriarchal rulers. 
EvcrtJiing rests on his shoulders. 
When he flags, all goes down. 

The man who can make the best 
book is usually not the best person to 
teach it. The subject stands in his 
mind in too synthetic a form. It is the 
analyst who makes the l)est teacher. 
Oral instiuction is therefore con- 
stantly liable to destroy the self ac- 



( 14) 



tivity of the pupil — that is to say, the 
very merit claimed for it is the one 
it least accomplishes. The pupil 
listens to the teacher's living voice. 
The first impressions are all he gets, 
even if he takes notes : it requires 
time to reflect. Our first impressions 
of things are never the most valu- 
able ; for all subsequent observation 
and reflection carry us deeper, and 
hence nearer to the truth. The pupil 
is dragged from one point to another 
without fully digesting either. But 
with a text book it is far otherwise. 
The book in his hand is "all pa- 
tience." It waits for him to consider 
and reconsider a difficult passage 
until he is ready to go on. The 
statement in the book is a studied, 
carefully prepared one. The author 
has spent hours in I'evising and cor- 
recting the defects of the one-sided 
statement of the minute. He was 
bound to see all properly related and 
subordinated— all exhaustive and lu- 
cid. The deference of the pupil 
leads him frequently to take the 
mere assertion of his teacher with- 
out question or demonstration, 
and thus allows him to be warped 
into his teacher's whims and idio- 
syncrasies ; it is not so with the 
text book. The text book has 
been carefully pruned before print- 
ing. It frequently happens that a 
man would blush to say before the 
world on a printed page Vvdiat he un- 
blushingly pi caches before his pupils. 
But the heat of personality departs 
from the printed page, and the scien- 
tific interest increases in proportion. 
Prejudice gives place to calm cir- 
cumspection. The page of the book 
is cool and dispassionate, and if not 



conclusive and thorough-going, the 
student has his remedy in another 
book. Multiplicity of text books 
has changed our mode of instruction 
so that every year there is more con- 
sultation of reference books and com- 
parison of difl'erent views ; and hence 
still another step is gained by the pupil 
toward independence of mere external 
authority. He shall read and compare 
for himself and form his own opinions, 
" thus doing his own thinking." 

SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 

Not onl}^ is this the land of indi- 
viduality, but we are living in an age 
of individuality. That period in 
which everything intended for the 
people was digested by the ruling 
class and handed down to them from 
above, has well nigh vanished here. 
It is disappearing fast, even in Eu- 
rope. The age of the newspaper and 
the telegraph is not the age of pre- 
scription, is not the age of external 
authority. According to the spirit 
of the last centur}'', the ruling au- 
thority measured out to the people 
and ordained just how much of 
this and how much of that should 
be taught, always, of course, with 
a view to preserve the existing order 
of things. A monarchy, aristocracy, 
or theocracy, found it very necessary 
to introduce the scheme of external 
authority early. We who have dis- 
covered the constitution under which 
rational order may best prevail by 
and through the enlightenment and 
freedom of the individual, ive desire 
in our systems of education to make 
the citizens as independent as possi- 
ble from mere external prescription. 
We wish him to be spontaneous — 
self-active — self-governing. The gov- 



( 15 ) 



ernment of the United States be- 
comes better in the ratio tiiat the 
citizen becomes self-directive. With 
a race of shives — a race of men 
where there is not '"one reasoning 
brain to every pair of hands," but 
only one brain to a whole '"gang" of 
hands — our form of government 
would prove a mistake. The mod- 
ern state, as realized here, is a gigan- 
tic system of machinery for the pre- 
vention of tyranny. Think of the 
formalities ami routines of the legal 
process in order that the individual 
officer shall not display his personal- 
ity in the functions of his office ! 
How carefully our race has learned, 
through centuries of experience, to 
separate the total function of the 
government into three processes, and 
then to take care that diflbrent individ- 
uals shall perform these processes. 
The judge must not be the accuser, 
nor may the accuser be the judge. 
The judge may not'be the law-maker. 
The law-maker shall make his laws 
in accordance with general princi- 
ples, and not with the particular in- 
stance staring him in the face. Be- 
sides this, the law-executing power 
shall be entire!}- sej^arate from the 
law-making and law-distributing 
powers. The man who fulfills either 
of these functions cannot incur the 
personal spite and hatred of the 
criminal, or of the friends of the 
criminal. The great sieve of govern- 
ment has sifted out personalities and 
left the 2^nrely rational element. In 
like maiuier, civil society, with its 
laws and usages, has sifted out the 
selfishness from the individual before 
his results reach the community. 
The wrath of man is turned into 



praise ; the selfishness, the greedy 
avarice, the ambition of the individ- 
ual, forces him to labor and toil he- 
roically for the community in order 
to gain those selfish ends. The indi- 
vidual is therefore obliged to re- 
nounce his selfishness in the very 
act of gratifying it. The Christian 
principle of Renunciation : " He 
who loses his life for ni}- sake 
shall find it," is here grown into the 
vital organism of society ; and it is 
well to note that the modern state is 
only the outgrowth, tlie realization of 
the Christian idea. So too is the 
general system of inter-communica- 
tion established in our civilization. 
The newspaper and the telegraph 
\vea\'e the net-work through which 
the idiosyncrasies of selfish bigotr}', 
opinions, conceits and prejudices, are 
sifted out. Sectionalism and sec- 
tarianism vanish before these instru- 
mentalities, and with them disappear 
the mists of ignorance. The distant 
is brought near ; a kind of omni- 
presence is attained. The mechanic 
or common laborer goes to his daily 
task after reading his morning news- 
paper, with a consciousness of being 
a citizen of the world at large ; he 
revolves in his brain the rebellion 
in China, the earthquake in Chili, 
the movements of French and Prus- 
sian armies, the Council of the Pope, 
and the last sermon of Brigham 
Young. Narrowness and meanness 
are thus eliminated from him, and he 
becomes a cosmopolitan, a Christian 
in the most catholic sense of that 
term. 

In our time each family collects its^ 
librar}^, counting, it may be, few 
books, yet these are not insignificant. 



( 16 ) 



A few volumes of Humboldt, or 
Agassiz, or even of Hugh Miller, 
open the world of natural history. 
Shakspeare, Goethe or Homer — a 
single volume of the works of these 
world poets is enough to lead the 
reader into the realm of Phantasy. 
Grote, Gibbon, or Hume — whoever 
reads them thoroughly, need not blush 
for ignorance of Historj-. Then every 
fomily owns a Bible, and it is remark- 
able that the colloquial English — the 
vocabulary of our language used in 
common conversation — is to a large 
extent the same as that used by the 
translators of the Bible. This fact 
shows ho\v constantl}- the people have 
read that book. 

What is the key to the library? 
What preparation is indispensable 
for the individual, in order that he 
may enter into this communion with 
humanity, and participate witli the 
wisest and best of his race, though 
sundered far in time or space? The 
-printed page is the medium^ and the 
capacity to read and understand it 
is the initiation required to enter 
into this realm of spirit. Not the 
mere ability to read the loords of a 
page, but rather the ability to study 
it, and extort from it its full signifi- 
cance by the crucibles of attention 
and reflection. 

This is the meaning of our system 
of "text book" education, and it is 
adapted to the life which the indi- 
vidual must lead in our century. We 
give the pupil the conventionalities of 
a perpetual self-education. With the 
tools to work A\-ith — and these are the 
art of reading and the knowledge of 
the technical terms employed — he 
can unfold indefinitelv his latent 



powers. Of what use would it be 
to fill or cram him with knowledge 
of special departments of science 
while in our schools? How much 
better this power of getting in- 
formation when and Avhere he needs 
it ! The attemjDt to pour into him 
an immense mass of information, by 
lectui^es and object lessons, is ill adapt- 
ed to make the practical man, after 
all. Mert oral instruction is at best 
like the fitting out of an emigrant train 
with an immense supply of sawn 
lumber, and a store of grain or flour 
to last for 3'ears. Text-book educa- 
tion, on the contrary, is like loading 
the train with saw-mills and grist- 
mills, steam engines and seed-planters 
and reapers, with a view to make 
lumber from the forests in the distant 
home as it shall be needed, and to 
gather harvests there by the aid of 
the tools transported thither. 

The LIBRARY of modern times is, 
as we said before, .what the Univer- 
sity was of old. In the library, and 
by it, are made the learned men of 
the present. The pride of Ame/ica 
is her self-educated men. All our 
educated men are in one sense self- 
educated ; for we adopt here that sys- 
tem of education which does not so 
much pour in preconceived theories, 
and fill up the mind of the pupil with 
ready-made doctrines, as it trains him 
in the method of mastering the 
printed book. With the acquirement 
of this — and sometimes an earnest 
mind gets this in a few months at 
school — -the pupil goes forth and car- 
ries on his culture independently. 
Who are our learned men, and how 
much do they owe of their learning 
to universities? Even in England, 



( 1" ) 



who \v;ks it that wrote the greatest 
History of Greece the world has pro- 
duced as yet? Grote was a business 
man, and had a slight school educa- 
tion to start with ; but his volumes 
ha\x' served tc> instruct the professors 
of universities concerning the very 
details of their own special theme ! 

But the method of teaching? The 
how to study? We are continually 
told of the mere memorizing of the 
words of a book, and of its evil effect. 
Tiiere are, it must be confessed, large 
numbers of teachers whose teaching 
is little better than the lifeless revolu- 
tion of a treadmill. Their influence 
in keeping the profession of teaching 
at a low grade of estimation in the 
community, cannot be counteracted. 
Whatever thcv do is in the style of a 
half-learned trade. They " keep 
school," or the "school keeps them," 
and know nothing outside of the 
book — no, not e\'en that — they do not 
know what is in the book unless it is 
open before them. Such teachers 
are, however, eminent in one tiling, 
to-wit : dogin:itism. They crush out 
every spark of originality in their 
pupils to the extent of their ability. 
Since they do not readi'y command 
the respect of their pupiis, they en- 
deavor to excite their fear. They 
are apt to become cowardly and cruel, 
oppressing the weak, but obsequious 
toward the powerful. These men 
bring odium on the very name of 
pedagogue. They are instanced 
by the enemies of our system as the 
necessary results of text-book instruc- 
tion. It is supposed by many that 
these are the proper representatives 
of what we consider the true stand- 
ard of pedagogy. It is supposed that 



the American ideal of tcachinj^ is 
found in the teacher who sits behind 
the desk and asks printed questions 
of the pupils, one after another, and 
requires the literal answer as? it is 
printed in the book, no variation be- 
ing allowed ; that no explanation is 
made by the teacher, and no pains 
taken to ascertain whether the pupils 
understand what they repeat verbatim. 
With such a view of our system it is 
not surprising that Europeans liavc 
hitherto cared but little to look into 
it for a deeper and truer idea. They 
have supposed that all the evils would 
vanish at once if our teachers only 
adopted a different s\stem — the oral 
method. 

A moment's reflection will convince 
one that the treadmill teacher who 
"I'eads no more than what he teaches," 
would be vastly more injurious to the 
pupil were he not tethered to a text- 
book. To what extremities liis ignor- 
ance and d(jgmatism would lead can 
not be readily conceived by those vvha 
are not old enough to remember the 
oldest fashioned school of this coua- 
try. Those who do remember that 
school have a vivid recollection of 
what dogmatism was in the days be- 
fore text-books had come into frequent 
use. 

The evils of the text-book system, 
great as they are, are not to be com- 
pared with those of the oral method. 
Even by the niemorizhig- plan the. 
pupil is obliged to concentrate his- 
attention and arouse himself to hard^ 
work, while by the oral method he 
does not acquire the habit of regular 
systeniatic stud\', even though he may 
foster l:>rilliant, flashy habits of mind. 
The tri'.e mode of teaching- does not 



( 18 ) 



rely upon the memory nearly so much 
as the object lesson system. The 
recitation is consumed in analyzing 
and proving the lesson so as to draw 
out all its relations and implica- 
tions. The child shall see what it is 
while reading a book to have every 
fiiculty awake, and to notice all that 
is contained directly and indirectly in 
it. After the first lesson the pupil 
does not skim over the mere surface 
so confidently. He knows that the 
teacher will ask more of him. He 
learns gradually to dive for the hidden 
essences, and reproduce from the text 
the whole idea which lived in the 
author's mind. The parrot repetition 
is checked — the good teacher, will 
have none of it ; the nooks and cor- 
ners must be all investigated — every 
possible view implied in the lesson 
•dragged out and discussed before the 
class — and thus the pupil is transform- 
ed into a student who possesses the 
alchemy to convert dead parchment 
into sibylline leaves ; and, by the spell 
of mental discipline, to cause the old 
enchanter who wrought the characters 
that conceal his thoughts in the niys- 
terious vesture of winged words, again 
to stand before him and reveal his 
secret. 

Self-determination — the direction 
of one's own practical endeavor — this 
I know to be the object aimed at in 
our schools, not only in the theo- 
retical spheres, but in the sphere of 
the Will. He is not counted a good 
teacher who flogs his pupils into good 
behavior; for all know that such 
good behavior upoji cofistraint is not 
permanent. The " form of Eternity" 
is a self-related one. The teacher 
who elevates his pupils to a feeling 



of their own responsibility, is the one 
that all value. Under him pupils 
feel that it is a disgrace to allow any 
one to govern them except them- 
selves, and accordingly they take the 
matter into their own hands, and be- 
come free by acting like freemen. 
This feeling of responsibility is so re- 
markabl}^ developed in our population 
that it attracts the first attention of 
foreigners who visit our shores. It is 
observable that children, even in 
earliest infancy, do not rest in that 
perfect feeling of security which 
comes from implicit trust in outside 
protection. The necessity for self- 
. help makes its wa}^ into the conscious- 
ness of the child before it can fairly 
walk alone. 

The immense weight of responsi- 
bility which oppresses the individual 
causes this influence to descend hered- 
itarily to the children. Indeed, an 
edict ha'- gone forth to the New 
World ii our Declaration of Inde- 
pendence : "Woe unto that head 
which cannot govern its pair of 
hands." Unto the lower races who 
fail in this, it reads the sentence : "If 
you cannot direct your own hands by 
your own intelligence you only en- 
cumber the ground here, and can re- 
main by sufterance in this place only 
so long as land is cheap. You must 
move back into the wilderness, like 
the Indian, or else absorb our culture 
and become intellectually productive, 
or else — die out. This is the judg- 
ment pronounced by the Anglo Saxon 
upon the lower races. It seems cruel 
— nay, the crudest edict ever pro- 
claimed by a civilized race. It is not 
the way of the Spaniard : the 
Frenchman can sfet along- with infe- 



( 1^ ) 



rior races ; the Spaniard can actually 
mingle with lower races and lose his 
identity. But the rule with the An- 
glo Saxon is otherwise. He does 
not esteem mei-e life — animal life as 
such — worth preserving. It is onlv 
intelligent — rational — life that is sa- 
cred. But with this cruel alternative 
he offers to the lower race the highest 
boon as reward for his efforts in self- 
culture — lie offers him free participa- 
tion in the freest and highest civil 
communtity. 

Thus it is that the period of school 
education is so much more important 
in America than elsewhere. As a 
simple creature of habit — with such 
education as one derives from the 
family nurture alone — a man stands 
a poor chance of being highly valued 
here. Only in proportion to his di- 
rective power, is he likely to obtain 
recognition. We can xnakc^. machine 
that will perform mere mechanical la- 
labor — one steam engine can do the 
work of a thousand men. The activity 
of our citizens is perforce turned into 
higher channels. The workman in his 
shop is known to be an American by 
his quick comprehension of the ma- 
chinery over which he is placed. He 



not only studies to improve the prod- 
uct, but to improve the machine that 
makes the product. It is the age of 
comprehension. The back-woods- 
man can read Plato and Aristotle — 
it has been done by hirn. The me- 
chanic can master La Place and 
Newton. It has been done. Even 
an American lady, resident in Low- 
ell, Massachusetts, threaded all the 
intricate mazes of La Place's Ale- 
chaiiiquc Celeste. What lofty goals 
beckon on the American youth ! 
What teachers we need for the work 
of their instruction I Not the cramp- 
ing, formalistic pedants who stiff* all 
enthusiasm in the souls of their pu- 
pils, but true living teachers are 
needed. 

The model teacher is a student 
himself, and because he is growing 
himself, he kindles in his pupils the 
spirit of growth — tree from narrow 
prejudices, his very atmosphere dis- 
enthralls the youth entrusted to liis 
charge. Animated by a lofty faith, 
all his pupils reflect his steadfastness 
and earnestness, and learn the great 
lesson of industry and self reliance — 
thus preparing themselves for the life 
of free men in a free state. 



WE PROPOSE TO PUBLISH A 



Series of Educational Documents in this Form, 

For the use of Teachei's and School Officers, 

Price $3.00 per hundred, or 5 cents each for a less number. Enclose 
stamps to pay postage. Address, 

WeF;lerii FiiWisMog anil School FiirnisMiii Comiiaiii, 

708 and 710 Chestnut Street, ST. LOUIS. 



5 



OF 



ARITHMETICS 



/ 



'^ HE GREAT MERITS OF THESE BOOKS CAN BE APPRECIATED BY 
V^l) those only who have used them, and witnessed the rapid and thorough 
'?^^ scholarship invariably secured by their use. They are without a superior, 
S5^ and, we think, with -ut a rival, in the following particulars : 

1st. In brief, clear, accurate definitions. 

2nd. In exhaustive statement and varied illustration of principles. 

3rd. In concise and ri'jid demonstrations. 

4th. In brief, practic .1 rules. 

5th. In logical arrangement of subjects. 

6th. In a careful observance of the distinction between the subjects of great and 
those of minor importance. 

7th. In their thorough treatment of important, and their excellent epitome of minor 
subjects. 

Sth. In their constant reference to general principles in the solution of problems. 

9th. In their carefully selected examples illustrative of every principle, 
loth. In their clear analytical outlines for the solution of everv class of problems, 
nth. In their rigid deduction of rules from solutions based on the principles 

enunciated. 
12th. In tbiir regular and thorough reviews. 

For th .bove reasons these books were introduced into the following St. Louis 
Educatio' Institutions in the year 1S65, and have been used in them ever since : 

Washington University, 

Bonham's Seminary, 

AND TJIE 

St. Louis Public Schools. 

In the last named schools they were not used during the year 1S6S, but have been 
since, and are now being used. 

Copies for examination and introduction will be sent by addressing 

MADISON BABCOCK, 

*A(/e;>t 0/ Cir^S. SCRISJYBTi & CO., 

708 and 710 Chestnut Street, 
lo Q ST, LOUIS, MO. 

542 id 



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